President's Message for 2006

I am pleased as 2007 president of CSAB Inc., to report to you the events of 2006.

CSAB continues to be an active and vital organization that has been effective in promoting the quality of education in the computing sciences since its inception in 1985. CSAB is the ABET designated lead society for accrediting programs in Computer Science (CS), Information Systems (IS), Software Engineering (SwE) and Information Technology (IT.). CSAB is also a co-operating society for accrediting programs in Computer Engineering. Pilot accreditation visits for Information Technology programs were conducted successfully in 2006. Currently, there are approximately 280 computing programs accredited by ABET through the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC). In addition, 180 programs in computer engineering and software engineering are also accredited through the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of ABET. At this sustained growth rate, we will soon have responsibility for over 300 programs accredited by ABET in four disciplines and, as a result, will have a third director on the ABET board.

During 2006, CSAB conducted successful program evaluator training sessions in Houston for CS and IT programs, and in Baltimore for IT programs. The CSAB criteria development committee, in conjunction with the CAC criteria committee developed new criteria which will be piloted in 2008 and rolled out in 2009. The outstanding effort of the Chair of the Criteria Committee, Ben Huey and committee members Ken Martin, Barbara Price, David Feinstein and Frank Young is sincerely acknowledged.

We continue to co-operate with ABET in the Participation/PAVE project, the ABET Financial Model task force and the Harmonization project. While we applaud the overall goal of improving the quality of program evaluators, some serious reservations with the selection process of PEVs and the financial impact on CSAB continue to be causes of concern.

We also continue to hold summit meetings with our member societies, ACM, AIS and the IEEE-CS. The volunteer leadership and the chief executive officers and the executive directors of these societies have provided invaluable leadership, and continue to strongly support the mission and work of CSAB. These summit meetings with the participating societies have provided an excellent forum to keep the member societies informed about the ongoing activities and the challenges faced by CSAB. These meetings have focused on issues critical to CSAB, such as containing costs by adjusting the ABET financial model, reviewing issues relating to PEV recruiting and training, coordinating industry support and discussing international issues. We are most appreciative for the steady support provided by Moshe Kam, IEEE Vice-president for Educational Activities.

We are continuously exploring new opportunities to better serve education, our member societies and the computing profession both at home and abroad. We have established an International Committee led by Jerry Engel and assisted by John Impagliazzo and George Kasper; are evaluating the formation of a Department Head Association; and are actively coordinating developments in accreditation with like organizations, such as the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS.) To support these activities, we have developed a new committee structure for CSAB. (Please see www.csab.org).

I express my sincere gratitude to Don Bailes and Jerry Engel for their many outstanding contributions as past CSAC Chairs and Presidents of CSAB. Jerry Engel also served two terms as the CSAB representative on the ABET Board. Starting with the 2006 October ABET Board meeting, Patrick Walsh and I will serve as the CSAB representative directors on the ABET Board, Jerry Engel and Patrick LaMalva as our alternate directors.

I would like to thank Keith Barker who resigned as a CSAB director after many years of service to CSAB, and I am pleased to announce that Elizabeth Unger has agreed to serve in this position. I also extend a warm welcome to our new board members, Representative Directors Steve Seidman (IEEE-CS) and Ken Martin (ACM), and Alternate Representative Directors Bruce Barnes (IEEE-CS), John Impagliazzo (ACM), James Isaak (IEEE-CS), Barbara Price (ACM) and Heikki Topi (AIS.) I gratefully acknowledge and recognize all the Board members, Board alternates and committee chairs for their contributions to the growth of computing science accreditation and for improving the quality of computing programs. In particular, I would like to recognize Neal Coulter for his outstanding contributions as the chair of the PEV Assignments Committee. Last but not least, my thanks and appreciation to all our volunteers serving as CAC commissioners and program evaluators for their present and past service.

I am very proud to have served as your president during 2006, and was honored to recognize as CSAB Fellows Don Bailes, Della Bonnette, Susan Conry, Neal Coulter, Jerry Engel and Mike Liu. I also had the privilege to present CSAB’s Distinguished Service award to Keith Barker, Bruce Barnes, Patrick LaMalva and Beth Unger, and I am looking forward to make similar presentations to Roger Elliott and Charles Slivinsky.

In the coming year, we will face many challenges, notably training issues and associated costs. We also plan to work with the ABET Finance model task force to control and contain our steadily rising assessment cost for program maintenance and director fees. We also will continue to cooperate with the CEAA and the EAB of the IEEE.

Murali R. Varanasi
CSAB President